Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms continue to provide jobs to Ilonggos with more or less 41,000 currently on full-time employment in 103 firms while close to 12,000 workers are needed this year.

Joeven Tansi, executive director of the Iloilo Federation of Information Technology (I-FIT) in an interview on Thursday, Feb. 23, said industry players during their last meeting this month were asking for close to 12,000 workers this year.

The number, he said, is still understated since only seven BPO firms were able to submit their documents for their needed additional workforce.

“We have strong infrastructure backbone (internet), as manifested by multiple landing sites from big telecommunications, and we have the availability of qualified talents with natural accent. Iloilo (City) is accessible to the world from the eyes of the investors,” Tansi added in an interview.

However, Iloilo has to work double time to prepare its human resources as an old study showed that the estimated carrying capacity of Iloilo for BPO for the 2012 to 2014 period was 50,000, Tansi added.

With the current employment and the demand, he said then it means that Iloilo is already “fully saturated”.

Some BPOs are now recruiting workers outside of Iloilo, like Antique, which also has good internet connectivity. They are also accepting high school graduates.

Tansi called on the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to hold training for potential BPO workers.

In a previous interview with executives of IQOR, among the first big BPO players in Iloilo City employing around 4,000 Ilonggos, the company supports countryside development with seven of their eight locations being outside of Metro Manila and five in Iloilo.

“Seventy-five to 80 percent of our operations are in the Philippines and that speaks of the immense amount of investment we have in the country and our Filipino workforce,” said Tony Rizkallah, IQOR senior director for operations.

Wilbur Decker, the firm’s director for operations, dubbed their Ilonggo workforce as super-caliber talents with excellent English proficiency that makes conveying messages to their clients better.

“Our Ilonggo workforce is able to truly deliver outstanding results for our clients,” he said.

Iloilo City is ideal place for BPOs with its high number of universities providing education making it easier for them to pool talents who can speak and read English, easy access to multiple transportation options available 24/7 aside from the world-class international airport, and connectivity.

IQOR is looking forward to recruiting 1,200 employees, in January alone they hired 400 workers.PNA